Oakland: AIMS charter school board fires two top administrators in wild meeting

OAKLAND -- Tension was expected days before Friday night's meeting of the embattled and divided American Indian Model Schools board, but no one anticipated the events that unfolded in the wake of losing their charter.

AIMS staff and board President Toni Cook had called publicly for the resignation of AIMS board members Nadir Bey and Jean Martinez.

But instead of resigning, they fired the interim director, Sylvester Hodges, and the head administrator of the three AIMS campuses, Jennifer Avelino. She works at American Indian Public Charter School II.

Cook walked out in disgust. She could not be reached for comment immediately.

The move by the AIMS board may be fatal to chances of saving the charter through an appeal to the Alameda County Board of Education or the state.

The Oakland Unified School District yanked the AIMS charter last month because the board had not made efforts to fully distance the financial administration of the three-school system from its former executive director, Ben Chavis, who is accused of improperly channeling millions of dollars to himself and his wife.

The AIMS board was accused of holding up the hiring of a consultant to put the AIMS books in order -- one of the major OUSD demands for keeping the charter.

That led to the drive to oust Bey and Martinez, considered allies of Chavis and blamed for blocking the hiring of a consultant, thus imperiling the institution's chances at an appeal at the county level.

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And there was no word of a contract that was supposed to be approved Friday night for the charter finance management organization.

"Resign right now! Now! Now!" a father of an AIMS pupil demanded during the loud and crowded meeting.

"I'm at a loss for words," Sparks told trustees during the public comment session of the meeting. "On what grounds are we getting rid of Sylvester Hodges, and where is Toni Cook?" Sparks said, still looking a bit shaken. "This is a terrible excuse for a board meeting."

"I am very disappointed about the decisions that have been made," an AIMS pupil said to the board. "American Indian changed my life. If I have to go to another school, I'm afraid my academics will decrease instead of increase," she said, breaking into sobs.

Several parents submitted petitions for the board members' resignations and teachers, who had until this week kept quiet, appeared mutinous, calling for the resignation of board members Bey and Martinez as well as Laura Armstrong and Jordan Locklear, who lives in Chavis' Oakland home.

At one point, after the meeting, angry members of the crowd threatened to block Bey from leaving the building.

Flynn said he had met with Hodges on Friday afternoon. "He was determined to get the job done."

Instead, Hodges was fired during the closed session of the board meeting shortly before Bey handed Avelino a letter of termination and a check.

Avelino said Bey's parting words were, "It's been a pleasure to work with you." The board provided no reason for her termination.

"They weren't doing their job," Martinez said later of the fired administrators. "There are things going on we're not able to talk about," she said, denying she or Bey stood in the way of reforms.

Normally, Hodges alone would have the authority to fire staff.

Asked directly for his thoughts about the way events had unfolded, Chavis chastised both sides for putting their own interests ahead of the AIMS pupils.

He said he favored closing the schools because the teachers involved the children in politics by asking them to sign a petition calling on the board members to resign. He said the pupils, including his children who attend one of the schools, were being exploited.

Under pressure from OUSD, the AIMS board gave Chavis notice on Jan. 12 that he could no longer have a role in running the institution, a demand made by district officials who concluded last fall that the organization failed to protect against corrupt fiscal practices.

The board appeared divided with Cook and Hodges trying to push reforms demanded by OUSD officials, who said the efforts were insufficient and revoked the charter March 20.

The Alameda County District Attorney is still looking into findings by state auditors that Chavis and his wife, Marsha Amador, used public funds for the schools for their own benefit.

AIMS parents plan to hold a rally at 8:30 a.m. Monday in front of the school at 171 12th St. in Oakland.